Valentine's Day in New Orleans

A beautiful block in New Orleans

If you are thinking about a romantic getaway in New Orleans this Valentine's Day, I can suggest a place to stay.  It is on Esplanade Avenue, one of the most beautiful streets in the Crescent City.  It is a convenient walk to the French Quarter and to Frenchman Street, and it also a convenient walk to City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Botanical Gardens, and the Canal Street streetcar line.  You can ride a carousel or smooch at the top of a ferris wheel.

Spend the evening in the Quarter, but spend the day strolling  around City Park.  If you want to spend a romantic weekend in New Orleans, you want to experience the magic that is the City Care Forgot.  La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast is right in the middle of Esplanade Avenue, in a tranquil and picturesque neighborhood where love is in the breeze that makes the oak trees whisper. 

Imagine walking up to this front door:

La belle d'Esplanade

Happy Valentine's Day!  

The inside is just as beautiful as the outside.  Walk through the front door and enjoy the lobby:

Tastefully colorful and eccentric

Every room is a different color.  Every room in this 1883 manor has been restored to its original glory, and then some.  There is original artwork and stories hung on the walls.  The antiques date from the 1880s.  Every room has a private bath with a claw foot tub and a private balcony or porch.

Let's examine the photo of the lobby above.  The fireplace is identical to the (non-working) fireplaces in every room.  The mirror on the mantle says, "Your New Orleans Face."  You can see yourself smiling.  The flowers on the wall are handmade by a local Mardi Gras float artist.  The shelves hold a selection of tobacciana, old pulp fiction magazines, an armadillo's skull, and a bowl full of king cake babies. Other shelves in the lobby hold other exhibits.  The stool is adorned with bottle caps and St. Joan of Arc medals, a piece of folk art indigenous to New Orleans.

Take a look at the ceiling.

The sun always shines in New Orleans

If you want to see the rooms, you will have to check out this link.  The lobby offers a taste of what awaits upstairs.  You will be greeted with a glass of Cajun wine and be given a tour of the grounds.  Yes, on Valentine's Day you can sit in the garden and sip a glass of muscadine.  The rest of the world will be a world away.  Love is in the air in the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue.  

Time stands still around the fountain in the garden

Breakfast will be waiting in the morning, a selection of local delicacies you didn't know existed.  You couldn't know unless you live in New Orleans.  We usually have bread leftover after breakfast.  Ask for it.  You can go feed the swans in City Park.  Swans mate for life, you know.

Swans mate for life

If you want to spend a romantic weekend, or a whole week, in New Orleans, you'll find a nice suite of rooms for your adventure at La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.

Valentine's Day is special.  Every day in New Orleans is romantic.

A votre sante.